Oswald Cobblepot (Gotham)
| title = | family = Gertrud Kapelput (mother)† Elijah Van Dahl (father)† Grace Van Dahl (stepmother)† Charles Van Dahl (stepbrother)† Sasha Van Dahl (stepsister)† | spouse = | significantother = | children = | relatives = | religion = | nationality = American }} Oswald Cobblepot, known as The Penguin, is a fictional character who appears on the Fox TV series Gotham. He is portrayed by American actor Robin Lord Taylor and is based on the character of the same name, created by Bob Kane and Bill Finger, that appears as one of Batman's greatest foes. He has been considered the show's breakout character. Development Gotham marks the second time that The Penguin was portrayed on live television, with the first being in the 1960s Batman series in which Burgess Meredith played him. In taking on the role, Robin Lord Taylor cited inspiration from Danny DeVito's portrayal of the Penguin in the 1992 Tim Burton film Batman Returns, the second installment of the Batman film series. Fictional character biography Oswald Cobblepot is a cunning, ruthless criminal who wants to rule Gotham's criminal underworld, and is willing – and often eager – to kill anyone who stands in his way. Nevertheless, he is patient and methodical, using his sharp intellect to concoct intricate plans in which his every move is premeditated toward achieving a given end. His last name is an anglicization of "Kapelput"; his mother, Gertrud Kapelput, is an immigrant from Austria-Hungary. He is very close to his mother, whom he considers the only person in the world who genuinely cares about him. This is the first version of the character who is LGBT; he has complicated romantic feelings for fellow criminal Edward Nygma. Season 1 Cobblepot starts out as a small-time criminal working for mobster Fish Mooney. After Mooney discovers that Cobblepot is an informant for the Gotham City Police Department (GCPD), she hobbles him, leaving him with a waddle-like limp that befits his hated nickname, "Penguin". Mooney and her boss, crime lord Carmine Falcone, order GCPD detectives Jim Gordon and Harvey Bullock to execute Cobblepot, but Gordon lets him go. Cobblepot allies himself with Falcone and rival mob boss Sal Maroni, and climbs his way up the ladder of Gotham's criminal underworld through murder and treachery. At the end of season one, Cobblepot is Gotham City's sole remaining mob boss, with all of his rivals either dead, missing, or having fled Gotham. Season 2 Cobblepot is now the "King of Gotham", controlling all aspects of the city's crime. However, he is forced to help corrupt billionaire Theo Galavan in his campaign for mayor when Galavan's sister, Tabitha, kidnaps Gertrud. Cobblepot obeys Galavan's orders to murder the rival candidates, but Tabitha kills Gertrud anyway. Cobblepot swears revenge and dedicates himself to destroying Galavan. He eventually succeeds in unraveling Galavan's criminal empire with help from Gordon, and he gets his revenge when the two of them kill Galavan. Cobblepot is arrested for killing Galavan and sent to Arkham Asylum, where head psychiatrist Hugo Strange subjects him to a series of psychological tortures that render him timid and harmless. After his release, he meets his wealthy biological father, Elijah Van Dahl, who takes him into his family. Van Dahl's wife and children are plotting to kill Elijah and inherit his fortune, and use Cobblepot in their schemes. After they kill Elijah, they make Cobblepot their servant. When he discovers what they have done, his conditioning wears off and he becomes his old self again. Angered by the loss of his father, he takes brutal revenge: he slaughters his step-siblings and cooks them into a pot roast, feeding them to Grace before killing her as well. As Elijah's only living relative, Cobblepot inherits his father's fortune. Upon learning that the vigilante Azrael is the recently resurrected Theo Galavan, Cobblepot and his henchman Butch Gilzean kill him with a missile launcher. After Arkham is overrun with Strange's mutated "experiments", Cobblepot arrives there to kill Strange – only to find that the doctor has also revived Fish Mooney. Season 3 Six months later, Cobblepot leads an angry mob against Mooney and Strange's creations. He spares Mooney after she says she is proud of what he has become, and tells her to leave Gotham and never come back. He is hailed a hero for defeating Mooney, and makes a successful run for mayor with help from Edward Nygma, with whom he falls in love. When Nygma enters a relationship with a woman named Isabella, Cobblepot grows jealous and has her killed. When Nygma discovers what Cobblepot has done, he embarks on a campaign of revenge which culminates in him bringing his former friend to the harbor docks, where he shoots him in the stomach and pushes his body into the harbor. Cobblepot is later found and healed by Ivy Pepper, and forms a partnership with her in order to kill Nygma and combat gangster Barbara Kean, who has taken over Gotham in his absence. They recruit Victor Fries and Bridgit Pike as minions, and help Gordon stop the Court of Owls from using a weaponized virus on the city. Mooney is fatally wounded during a showdown between Cobblepot and Kean's forces, and with her dying words tells Cobblepot to make Gotham his or "burn it to the ground". The GCPD makes a deal with Nygma to entrap Cobblepot, but the plan fails when Kean, Tabitha and Gilzean show up to fight; Cobblepot escapes while the two sides fight each other. Cobblepot takes Nygma to the same docks where he shot him, and has Fries encase him in a block of ice; Cobblepot wants to keep him as a reminder to never again let love weaken him. Later, Cobblepot and Ivy work on their plans for the Iceberg Lounge, with Cobblepot intending to use the frozen Nygma as the centerpiece. Season 4 Three months later, Cobblepot announces that no one can commit crimes in Gotham without a "license" from him; the mayor sanctions the scheme to keep crime down, and in return Cobblepot keeps the majority of the profits of any crime he permits. The GCPD reluctantly goes along with it – except for Gordon, who pledges that he will arrest any criminal he finds, and eventually Cobblepot himself. One night, Cobblepot discovers that Nygma is gone from his ice prison and orders his personal assassin, Victor Zsasz, to find him. Nygma sends Cobblepot a series of riddles to make him guess his location, all of which Cobblepot deciphers easily. Cobblepot meets with Nygma and tells him that he has lost his edge, and is no longer worthy of his attention. However, he changes his mind when he finds out that Nygma is making fun of him at a club in the Narrows as part of a wrestling act with Gilzean – who was killed months before and is now reborn as Solomon Grundy. Meanwhile, Cobblepot forms a tenuous alliance with Carmine Falcone's daughter, Sofia. At first, he suspects that she is plotting against him, but he becomes confused when she offers him something he has never had: friendship. Together, they open an orphanage, and he befriends one of the orphans, a mute boy named Martin. He teaches the boy about the finer points of revenge and sabotage, and has him spy on Sofia, who he does not know how to trust. Martin later informs him that he saw Gordon and Sofia kissing, and Cobblepot realizes that she has been manipulating him. She arranges a meeting with him with Kean, Tabitha and Selena Kyle in tow and threatens to kill Martin unless he surrenders his territory, but he manages to fake Martin's death to keep him safe, and declares war on Sofia. Cobblepot then reveals Sofia's plotting to her father, who decides to send her away; moments later, however, Don Falcone is shot dead by men working for Sofia. Zsasz, believing that Cobblepot ordered the hit on his mentor, implicates him in Martin's apparent death, for which he is arrested and sent to Arkham. In his cell, he makes the acquaintance of psychopathic criminal Jerome Valeska (Cameron Monaghan). See also *List of Gotham characters References Category:Batman characters Category:Gotham (TV series) characters Category:DC Comics television characters Category:LGBT characters in television Category:Batman in other media Category:LGBT supervillains Category:Fictional mayors Category:Fictional cannibals Category:Fictional crime bosses Category:Fictional mass murderers Category:Fictional characters introduced in 2014